The Journey Begins
Activities and events in the first week of Cohort 1’s academic residency culled the nerves many students felt. Opportunities for open dialogue among peers and professors, and time for reflection, integrated students into the academic community at Winona State University and into their roles as doctoral students. Forty to sixty percent of doctoral students do not persist to graduation (Cochran, Campbell, Baker, & Leeds, 2014, p. 29); however, living on campus and engaging with other doctoral students fosters camaraderie, which helps reduce the risk of attrition.
Welcoming faculty and administrators, access to critical on-campus resources, and helpful technology are available to support students over the next two years. Logistics also impacts the doctoral journey. Living on campus in proximity to resources and intentionally meeting in the library helped students connect with the campus community and environment.
Cochran, J. D., Campbell, S. M., Baker, H. M., & Leeds, E. M. (2014). The role of student characteristics in predicting retention in online courses. Research in Higher Education, 55(1), 27-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11162- 013-9305-8
Problem in Practice
Declining parental involvement in K-12 schools greatly affects student performance in their academic careers (Malone, 2017). Parental investment greatly impacts student engagement, academics, and involvement, which define students’ potential success in their academic careers. Rural schools may experience different parental-institution relationships than urban schools (Witte and Sheridan, 2011). In rural schools, teachers may have systems in place that support maintaining relationships with students’ families, due in part that the relationships with families and the educators overlap in the community. Rural instructors also come to work with the do-what-it-takes attitude because of limited resources (Witte and Sheridan, 2011).
Malone, D. (2017). Socioeconomic status: A potential challenge for parental involvement in schools. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 83(3), 58–62.
Witte A. L., & Sheridan, S. M. (2011). Family engagement in rural schools (R2Ed Working Paper No. 2011-2). Retrieved from the National Center for Research on Rural Education website: http://r2ed.unl.edu
Research Questions
School districts should practice self-reflection to continue to best serve children’s academic needs. The school system is a constantly evolving machine that must build and sustain relationships with parents between home and the institution. Three pertinent questions to address during the problem of study are:
RQ1: Does parental involvement increase or decrease depending on social constraints or socioeconomic status?
RQ2: What factors contribute to the decline of parental involvement?
RQ3: Are there strategies for increasing parental involvement that has proven effective?
